Do you remember when
I knew you before?
When I was there
Like a crow-spoken shadow
In the leaves of the night.
(But I could recall
Only the wind that went
On and on.)
We listened together then
There in the canyon
Of moonlight
To the feet
Of gazelles
That rang
On the rocky hill,
To the call
Of the owl among the green bells
In the luminous cave.
Do you remember? It was not
So long ago,
Before the earth was bent, by chance,
Before we forgot,
Before the walking one and the chattering one
Had gone
All
On their separate strands,
Along the wandering, wave-crossed shore.
It was the time when still
The acacia trees sang
In the yellow
Grasslands,
And the blue rivers woke to greet
The elephants at dawn
With the beginning of their silver dance.
(And I could recall
then the voice of the sea-wind lost
Among the stars of stone,
Stone,
Stone that shone
In the rainbows
Washed up on the radiant wave.)
Written October 16, 2010